Dispensaries Would Be An Improvement For Marijuana Patients

Cannabis Warrior - News Moderator

CHICO — Though Kris Kidd hasn't received as much as a parking ticket in more than five years, the 42-year-old Chico resident says she is forced into criminal behavior on a routine basis, simply to relieve her pain.

Kidd, who holds a graduate degree and has an extensive resume in social work, suffers from no less than 11 medical ailments, including degenerative disk disease and scoliosis.

Most of Kidd's day is spent in pain. Though she can walk into any of the more than 15 pharmacies in Chico and pick up a prescription for Vicodin, she can't legally purchase the one drug that truly assuages her body and mind — marijuana.

"Right now, I have to get it illegally," Kidd said. "I don't have any place to go."

Kidd is disabled, on a fixed income and has no means of travel.

She doesn't want to grow marijuana in her home but said she needs the drug to balance the debilitating effects of the prescription medications she takes.

For Kidd, a medical marijuana dispensary in Chico could make a world of difference.

Though she admits that most of her friends would be shocked to discover she medicates with cannabis, Kidd has held a recommendation for medical marijuana for four years.

She vaporizes the drug and inhales it through a straw. She also swallows a mountain of prescription medications each day.

Kidd sees no difference between medicating with prescription drugs and medicating with marijuana, aside from the fact the doctor-prescribed pills have more dangerous side effects.

"Using marijuana is more natural compared to the amount of medications I'm putting into my body," Kidd said. "I have to have my liver checked because of the prescription drugs. If I don't take one of those pain pills I go into withdrawal immediately. There's no withdrawal symptoms with the marijuana."

Not many will argue that marijuana can't be used for medicinal purposes. Even Chico Police Chief Mike Maloney will attest to its benefits.

Although Maloney, a two-time cancer survivor, has never used marijuana, at the tender age of 17 he saw first-hand how marijuana can relieve pain for a terminally ill patient when he faced cancer.

Maloney said his roommate in the hospital smoked marijuana in their room and changed his perception of its use as medicine.

"Out of that experience, and despite my 35-year career in law enforcement, I have come to believe that there is in fact a legitimate use of marijuana for medicinal purposes," Maloney said.

Yet when it comes to providing a place for people to procure that medicine, Maloney doesn't believe a dispensary is necessary.

He argues the vast majority of those who want a dispensary simply want increased access for recreational drug use, rather than medicine.

"It's my observation in general, that the overwhelming majority of those we encounter with Proposition 215 cards appear not to be legitimate medical patients, but rather people who are using Prop. 215 to legitimize using marijuana for recreational purposes," Maloney said.

But Kidd is someone who defies that stereotype.

So is 32-year-old Chico resident Rosalina Acevedo.

When talking about her pain and her need for medicinal marijuana, Acevedo erupts into tears.

The petite artist said she doesn't want to use marijuana or prescription drugs at all, but her "encyclopedia" of medical records and extreme pain warrants the need.

She's been legally medicating with marijuana for five years, but said she still feels like she's "living in a closet."

Acevedo doesn't often share her medical struggles with others.

She said she avoids mentioning her marijuana use to bypass the judgment that inevitably comes from those she said are uninformed about the issue.

"It's not something I should be ashamed of," Acevedo said. "But there is shame. I'm more shameful that there's ignorance with it. That's my shame."

Acevedo uses marijuana as a salve or tincture, medicating on a daily basis. She has a caretaker and is part of a collective, but said a dispensary would provide her access to marijuana when she needs it, rather than when the collective has it available.

She also sees a dispensary as a place where she can feel welcome and where she can relate to others who are in her situation.

"I would feel safe," Acevedo said. "Safety is a big issue for me. I want to have that accessibility without being worried and without feeling judged."

Dylan Tellesen's model for a dispensary would do just that.

Tellesen, who occasionally medicates with marijuana for migraines, has been working with the city of Chico in hopes of opening a legitimate dispensary within the city limits.

Citizen Collective is already up and running with approximately 50 members, but Tellesen said the need for a storefront dispensary is evident in the community and exemplified when one listens to the stories of people like Kidd and Acevedo.

"Patients need access to medicine," said Tellesen, an artist and Butte College instructor. "And they need safe, affordable access to that medicine. It's fairly easy to obtain marijuana in an illegal way. But let's be legitimate about it. Let's make it safe."

Although Kidd, Acevedo and Tellesen are all within their legal rights to grow marijuana in their homes, Tellesen said that shouldn't be their only option.

Tellesen's dreams for a dispensary include educational classes on the proper use of medical marijuana, medicine provided at a reasonable rate and a self-imposed tax that would give money back to the city.

Along with Chico lobbyist Max Del Real, Tellesen has held workshops and community forums on his plans, with Del Real saying a dispensary will only strengthen the community.

"The black market goes away and streets become safer," Del Real said. "Medical marijuana brings big business to town. Communities with dispensaries show that crime is going down and business is going up."

Tellesen supports strict regulations on dispensaries and balks at claims that dispensaries bring crime into communities.

"I'd like to see the statistics to support that crime goes up," Tellesen said.

He won't find them in the city of Redding.

The municipality recently began regulating dispensaries in the city, providing zoning for the storefront shops and implementing a licensing process that goes through the Redding Police Department.

Redding Police Chief Peter Hansen said prior to the regulations, the city saw 35 storefront collectives pop up in a span of just two months.

With zoning and other regulations in place, the number of dispensaries has dropped to 19.

Although Hansen admitted legitimizing dispensaries goes "against the grain" for police culture, he said ultimately, the regulation of dispensaries has benefited the Northern California community.

"It does bring it out of the back alley to operating legitimately," Hansen said.

He hasn't seen any correlation between crime and dispensaries in his city, noting complaints are largely over the smell of a single dispensary.

"We've had some complaints, but nothing we would consider a crime issue," Hansen said. "We just have not seen that. People are managing and operating dispensaries responsibly. They're running a clean operation and not causing problems."

Hansen said if problems were to arise, the city's rules make it easy to address the issues.

He cautioned that if Chico doesn't take action on implementing regulations, the city could easily see a proliferation of pot shops similar to Redding.

"It doesn't take long and it doesn't take much to open up those type of businesses," Hansen said.

In the past few months, Chico has seen rogue dispensaries emerge, with what seems to be almost no retribution.

Tellesen said Citizen Collective will not be one of those dispensaries and has been diligent about working with the city, rather than against it.

And even though Tellesen is waiting to provide access to medicinal marijuana to people like Acevedo and Kidd, he added that if their pain was assuaged by any other means, the council wouldn't be debating the issue at all.

"If that relief came in a pill, no one would say anything about it," Tellesen said.

Del Real agreed, saying medical marijuana has become so politicized that the perspective of the patients has been lost.

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